Of all the recent black face controversies this one to me is the most outrageous and offensive. I cant believe this was published let alone was even proposed as an idea.

I’m black and I honestly don’t see the offense…or the humor in this, or even a clue of what this is trying to convey…It’s just dumb…Looks like the chocolate guy off of that creepy ass Axe commercial, LMFAO!

It is meant to grab attention and publicity. It worked.

Black-face seem to be an American phenomenon, and I had to discover why it was offensive since I’m not an American. In other parts of the world, racism does exist, but it’s a different flavor of racism, different type of prejudice and unfairness. I don’t know for sure where was the photographer going with this, but his name sounds all-white eastern European, so you can as well conclude that he finds black rare, fascinating and beautiful. Dumb and offensive would be American perspective.

yup, pretty much as horrible as the “no h8″ campaign photos….

why would this be offensive exactly?

and let me add to that question – does that mean that men pretending to be women, i.e. transvestites, are offensive to women?

I love it! How American to look past the art and worry about a political statement it may or may not be making…Yes I am Canadian by the way!!!

There is no racism. Great job.All magazine is fantastic!!!!!

I’m black and I do not take offense to this at all. I mean look at the movie “White Chicks” with the Wayans brothers. They’re black men pretending to be white women. But there wasn’t much controversy over that. Correct me if I am wrong.
I don’t see the offense in someone pretending to be of another race. I believe everyone has acted certain ways, talked with a certain accent, or dress up like a certain group of people. Everyone has done it. And most of the time it’s all harmless fun

I wouldn’t say racism, stupid yes. Why not just hire an actual black model?

I wonder if it has anything to do with the dark wash denim in the background. It’d be a wildly inappropriate pun but kind of funny. I think the Afro and Shaft get up ruin what was otherwise an interesting visual.

I can’t see the “offensive” thing. Huh?

I don’t quite get it either, but maybe he’s trying to say that underneath the color, the human being is the same and skin color makes no difference, the body is hot no matter the color. Thoughts?

I am a black American and I am not offended at all I think Arthur B or W face is hot sexy guy … LOL but that wig !!! that’s OFFENSIVE

I love a big black cock.

BTW This ad campaign reminds me of the episode of Designing Woman where 3 of the ladies ( Julia, Mary Jo,& Charlene R taken part N some type of musical event as the Supremes ( lip ) singing Ain’t No Mountain Higher and Suzanne joins them on stage ( the 3 other Girls where n total shock ) wearing a curly Afro wig and complete black body makeup and she Suzanne / Delta Burke made a Beautiful Black Woman !! LOL just thought I share this …..

I don’t know if it is still taught in history class in the USA, but black-face is offensive because of it’s heavy use in the portrayal of African American stereotypes in the theater setting in the 19th century. for Americans black-face is THE racist archetype
It’s still used around the world lightly but in America it is very controversial, especially as far as African American Studies go.
Being Mexican myself I know much of Latin America uses black-face still but it doesn’t hold the same cogitation that it hold in the US.
Since It’s a French Photographer and a Brazilian model I would say it’s with in its means. I wouldn’t hope they would do this for an American audience.

Thank you Chamako,
Again, Dewitt all racial sensitive issues are over your empty head. There are plenty of beautiful black men in every shade of the rainbow to use, so why paint a white model black?

It’s very offenive, just use a Black model

I’m not offended, but I don’t see the point…

the never-ending thickness…
‘why not use a black model?’….
well, why don’t gay clubs hire women instead of trannies?
and it was andy, not dewitt.

fucken american’s… a bear shitting in the woods is offensive to you guys!!
get over ur stupid political correctness – who cares!
I used to get called all the names under the sun about being gay – and used to get soooo offended and hurt. And one day i discovered a magical trick!
“Just get over it”… I kept telling myself, “what does it matter what they say/think?” Eventually all the words and taunts meant nothing – and I pitied the people doing it.
Racism, homophobia, sexism… its all the same – prejudice and hate without grounds.
If everyone just got over it and said to themselves “it doesn’t matter”… the problem would solve itself!
and mark – lol, good point re trannies!
should women be offended by trannies/drag shows?

If they wanted to use a black model, they would have. In countless photo shoots, they do so, and the models look great. In this shoot, they did something different. They left this model partially painted, and they did that for a reason. In any of these shoots, every single prop, everything lying around in the background, and every bit of makeup are all done for a reason. Typical of Americans to suggest that just because THEY had an issue with it in their country, that the rest of the world should bow down change everything to suit them. Let’s face it: nobody would be bitching right now if they had taken a black model, and painted his face and chest white. Get over yourselves.

Dan…I loved your comments! Like when people say faggot and then look at me and say sorry!!! What do I care…queer, gay, cocksucker whatever. I dont say man and then look at guys and say sorry? What about dude, bro, pal all slang but no one cares..If you are gay, black, hispanic, paraplegic whatever, embrace yourself and in wisdom of Hollywood “any press is good press”

Black face by whites is ALWAYS racist, it has racist origins.

So is white faces by blacks always racist? I’m seriously curious…

I have to agree with Dan’s post.

@ ToddM,

Of course it is! Unless it’s satire. If this is “satire”, then I don’t consider it offensive. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case.

The main reason this is so controversial is not simply because of Black face’s political roots in American theatre, but also because of issues of representation. In the fashion industry, people of color – especially blacks – are at an immense disadvantage due to preferences for people with European features. In fact, a former model even noted from her experiences with a photographer, who claimed rather bluntly, that he was looking to photograph people of color who looked like “white people with their skin painted.” Sound familiar?

People of color who are selected sometimes get objectified by having them pose semi-naked, etc. in a group of fully clothed models, and that’s not the worst. Given the difficulty of being hired in general, the anger at this so-called shoot celebrating “diversity” is centered around the fact that they didn’t include a single person of color and have instead a presumably caucasian person posing as a person of color, a tactic that seems to be a popular trend if you take the dreck that Lara stone did last year, or that of Claudia Schiffer and similar models.

This problem extends beyond black models, as black figures like Tyra Banks and the rapper Diddy have also been criticized, and it continues to invite a question that many still have not answered: if they truly want to celebrate diversity, then why haven’t they hired models representing the “races” presented to the audience?

@ Sam,

That’s wrong. Critics lampooned the Wayans brothers for what they did in White Chicks.